Friday, March 20, 2015

As everyone probably knows by now, an unarmed African American kid was recently shot and killed by a Madison police officer. Thanks to the amazing Chris Taylor, there is currently an independent investigation going on to see what exactly happened and why.

We do not have the full information on what happened yet. The only thing we know for certain is that Anthony Robinson, was unarmed and is no longer with us. Starting from the night that Mr. Robinson was shot, there have been peaceful protests. Protests involving, community, clergy, students, children, family, etc... All have been very peaceful. Even Mr. Robinson's family has called for peaceful protests.

The
family of an unarmed biracial 19-year-old killed by police in Madison,
Wisconsin, is pushing for peaceful protests online and in the streets.

"Our
hands are stained with the blood of my nephew, and we are all left to
deal with the aftermath," Turin Carter, the teen's uncle, told reporters
on Monday.

Carter stressed that his
family wasn't anti-police, but said Tony Robinson's death "highlights a
universal problem with law enforcement and how its procedures have been
carried out ... specifically as it pertains to the systematic targeting
of young black males."

But he said the problem goes beyond the chants of "black lives matter" that have already been used at protests over the case.

"I
encourage everybody to show support regardless of race because this is
truly a universal issue. ... We don't want to stop at just 'black lives
matter,' because all lives matter," he said.

"We're looking beyond Ferguson. And we're also looking at our community
to make sure that we are proactive in a way, that what has happened in
New York, what happened in Ferguson, won't happen here," African
American Council of Churches President Bishop Harold Rayford said.

Matt Kittle, Michael Grebe, Eric O'Keefe, Scott Walker, et al, would like nothing better than than to have race riots erupt in "liberal" Madison. This is what they are doing in front of the scenes, I hate to think of what they are doing behind the scenes.

Full disclosure, my wife took our 12 yar old son to a candle light vigil on the Sunday after the shooting. There were many children there. zero threats of violence, but lots of prayers, speeches, hugs and tears.

It is sad that this is what the right wing in Wisconsin has become. It is sad that stoking fear, and hatred is what Wisconsin Reporter thrives off of.

It is time for this BS to end.

Please send a message to MD Kittle of No More race baiting, fear, hatred and inert racism.

Instructing your children in participatory democracy is to be truly a wonderful thing Mr Simpson.

Scoffed at by a thoughtless misogynist who doesn't consider that your spouse made up her own mind to accompany you (and will likely not know the meaning of misogynist) illustrates again the limited vision and whining hysterics coming from another apparent political conservative.

Sorry, I misread that your wife went, as you stated in the OP. Was thinking, man you are one tough rapid recovery dude to be outside and standing already to grieve and examine, to reflect and speak in solidarity over this societal problem.

I'll choose to keep picturing you in the full physical recovery mode if you don't mind. Peace and Resolve.

Sometimes I wonder if media sources want to create a crisis so they can have something to cover. This is going on from both sides. Start with the headlines using the terms biracial, teen, white officer, and unarmed. Then you get the idiots on the right trying their best to stir the pot.In Ferguson, reporters have now admitted that they were wrong jumping to conclusions. Anyone who condemned Officer Wilson should be ashamed of themselves now that the facts are out. Hands up don't shoot was complete BS. The excuse that the media stories uncovered racist issues is true, but at what cost? Racist white people can say I told you so and a police officer's life was attacked based on irresponsible speculation. Then the spokesmen end up being hateful people who only add more lies. You have some media handing out a guilty verdict based on race and other media exonerating based on race.Maybe the media should wait until the truth is out before judging. Maybe this is why people have to choose which news source they listen to based on whether they agree politically instead of based on who tells the truth.It is truly horrible that this young man lost his life no matter how it happened. It is also horrible that an officer needs to live with this. Turin Carter is the voice of reason, which is truly remarkable under the circumstances, when he states that "all lives matter". On the flip side you have Wisconsin Reporter trying to set up a situation where no lives matter.

Claiming that both sides do it is the BS here. Corporate owned national media is what it is and it serves the corporate interests.

Reporters "examining," their own coverage now about having jumped to conclusions is not a reason to excuse Wilson's behavior of executing a teen, nor does it in any way have anything to do with excusing the institutional racism being objected to by people feed up with it under, "hands up,don't shoot," banner.

You've got something important to say, but you've jumbled several thoughts into one big paragraph that makes it difficult to understand.

The point Jeff was making was that the Wisconsin Reporter is a sham, it is a right wing propaganda factory funded by the same political extremists who are the right wing PR lackeys and that they are not a legitimate news source.

I posted this elsewhere, but sit through the two hours plus of testimony gathered by normal citizens in Albuquerque linked in this blog, describing out of control police harassment and violence and the Fed DOJ report of institutional racism in Ferguson. Apply it to Milwaukee and apply it to almost anywhere in the state that isn't a lily-white segregated by class or color community and never claim there that, hands up, don't shoot is BS. Your statement to that effect is ignorance and total ignoring of facts.

The reason you think what I had to say is jumbled together is because you only agree with half of it.

The point is really simple, both sides are trying to stir up trouble. If you want to get the truth from the news media, you have to read both sides and hopefully disseminate fact from fiction.

Today is the first time I have read anything from the Wis Reporter, and you are correct, it is trash. I accidently clicked on the comments from their link above and got to read the hateful comments from their "readers". It looks like a case of, "I really want to believe your trash because I agree with it".

Just so you know, I have two kids who are very early on in their careers as law enforcement officers. One of them has made several arrests in extremely dangerous situations where the perpetrators were wasted on drugs. Their safety has been endangered by the supposed media from both sides. Both of them went into this field with the intent of helping our society.

Just so you and others know, both of my kids whom I mentioned have lost thousands of dollars due to Act 10. Their equipment can not be replaced because of cuts in funds. Even though both of them have far more work to handle than what they have work time to do, their jobs are in jeopardy due to more cuts. The people who are asking for less law enforcement are getting their wish, and it will not be pretty.

The GOP's Wisconsin Reporter is a joke, and racism and inflicting harm onto black and brown folks are their objectives. I wouldn't bother becoming involved in writing about their partisan nonsense. More important work to do.

I wouldn't either, MAL, except that the Distorter's Bradley BS gets catapulted onto AM radio and then gets reported by Bice and co because "people are talking about it."

If we had a media that had an ounce of judgment, these rags would be laughed out of the equation. But we don't.

On a related note, check out Jpn Stewart's "mic drop" on Faux News regarding their race-baiting and lies about the issues on Ferguson http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/03/jon-stewart-drops-the-mic-on-fox-stop-harping-on-ferguson-protests-until-you-apologize-for-flogging-benghazi/

Bice is an absolute HACK! Before the John Doe I trials were even fully-underway, he proclaimed the entire probe "dead as a doornail". It is disappointing that some still hold his reports up as great work.

The Political Environment (James Rowen) will not allow truthful comments about the role of the state's self-proclaimed "watchdog" which point out how he regularly reprints disinformation from koch-funded fake news sites as news.

And do an actual report on walker?!?!

He never has and never will.

I recently saw Sen. Hanson at breakfast, right as the misnamed RTW bill was being rammed through. He was discouraged and the massive media failure (not actually a failure -- its just rightwing propaganda) really bothered him.

He was on the road campaigning with Mary Burke when the polls were showing it to be essentially a toss-up. DAN BICE and the usual hack reporter team (including Jason Stein) then reprinted word-for-word the lies from a Koch-funded fake news site about Mary Burke being fired from TREK.

This is all the rest of the state's media would ask here at campaign events -- killed the campaign right there -- all based on lies that the fake "watchdog" reporter sanitized. The rest of the state's media reprinted the lies, but now citing them to Wisconsin's "ace" reporters and even that bogus watchdog.

Shameful -- we cannot take back Wisconsin until we successfully call-out and change the media landscape. Scott Walker can be catapulted into the White House. The national media is no better than Wisconsin's rightwing echo chamber.

George WALKER Bush stole 2 presidential elections. The same folks behind that charade can steal '16 for Walker or Jeb Bush. Either way, the fascists win.

The owners of large media outlets have decided these assets are worth more as propaganda tools than as advertising-supported information services. This is what actually killed their circulation -- while we have access to news and info online -- most that turn to the 'net do so because the coverage we get on our tee-vee, radios, and nooooozepapers is so bogus and full of rightwing talking points.

What people forget is that there are fortunes to be made by sacking the U.S. economy. The 1% (or however you want to identify the socio-economic elite) do just fine when the rest of us lose our jobs, houses, and pensions.

You see, everything is a zero sum game -- someone's loss is someone else's gain.

Walker is merely a tool that stands in front of the microphones and cameras. This is what george WALKER bush was too. Our real problem are the economic/political interests BEHIND the mics and cameras.

Walker doesn't have to pay anyone anything to get his talking points in the media, at least not directly. JS not only has not called Walker to task, THEY HAVE ENDORSED HIM FOR GOVERNOR THREE TIMES!

Nothing but economic boycotts will change the media -- do not buy newspapers -- they are filled with lies anyhow. We also need to publicly talk about boycotting those that underwrite the lies in the nooooze.

While many are making personal choices to boycott certain products and businesses that underwrite economic terrorism (which is what Walker and ALEC are promoting), this does no good at all unless we publicly talk about boycotts and urge others to join us.

Walmart and the other rightwing businesses that feel entitled to our discretionary income do not care if we don't shop in their stores as long as we don't talk about it -- as long as we don't encourage others to join us.

In Madison, for example, The Mis (radio station), which once had progressive programming now is putting a rightwing hack during the 8-11 drive time and has a bogus 2-5 drive time show that is not at all progressive -- is actually pretty rightwing (hides behind the lie of being a "libertarian" -- too embarrassed to admit he's a republican).

The local businesses that are underwriting this need to hear from us! The radio personalities on that station are begging folks not to call the advertisers and complain about the right-wing bias that is entirely against the grain of the community.

Walker is being groomed for something big and even if Walker is not on the top of the ticket, he is setting the tone for the entire republican primary. He has quickly risen to the top of polls because the media constantly publishes his talking points as nooooze. On his merits, he should not be a credible candidate, but he is because of shameless propaganda in the media.

And no one has done more to create our divide-and-conquer governor than Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the shills there that are falsely promoted as journalists and even "watchdogs".

Nothing will change without demands for change and economic action, withholding the only vote you have that is accurately counted, YOUR DOLLARS!

What most are not ready to admit, but can be objectively demonstrated are:

1. The Koch brothers and other multinational corporate interests DO NOT NEED AMERICANS AS WORKERS to earn billions and billions of dollars.

2. THEY DON'T NEED MOST OF US AS CONSUMERS EITHER! They can restructure their business models to write-off huge numbers of Americans as irrelevant.

We are reaching an end-game. If repugs steal 2016 Presidential Election and control congress, we will see a permanent merger of multinational corporate interests and government -- the very definition of fascism.